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18 Things That Will Help You Pick a High Appreciating Neighborhood

November 11th, 2009 categories: Buying a Home

Today’s market is different than years past… to say the least. There are still basic principles of buying that you should follow to make smart choices when buying a home as an investment vehicle for your future. Here are 18 Things to Look for to Pick a High Appreciating Neighborhood…

Neighborhoods generally appreciate because of…

Great schools or proximity to schools
Pride of ownership
History of high-appreciation
Low crime rates
Economic stability
Employment access and availability
Homogeneity, cohesiveness
well maintained, curving streets
Rivers, mountains, hills, streams, lakes, oceans, or any body of water nearby
Plenty of common area
Parks and green areas
Mature trees or abundance of trees
Properly lit streets
Historical significance (think of downtown areas)
Trendy stores, nearby cultural centers (like performing arts, galleries, etc)
Good infrastructure, roads, fire, police, etc.
Low traffic congestion
Parking

These things, along with a number of other factors, will help you find a neighborhood that will appreciate during your time living there. Many of these factors are hard to determine without the help of a professional. Give me a call if you are considering a certain neighborhood in Northwest Arkansas and I will be happy to do a neighborhood appreciation analysis for you.

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Tags: appreciation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 10:17 am and is filed under Buying a Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Rob McCance said at November 14th, 2009 at 1:41 am

That's a pretty good list. I get the feeling you could keep going with the list, for a long time.

One thing completely out of our control is the general long term economic picture.

When I bought my home 7 years ago, they were all in the high $300s and low $400s. But they were huge, beautiful, and one 1+ acre lots. Everyone knew they would all eventually go to the $500-$600k range.

And, they did. But folks buying now in that higher range can't really feel too good about these homes making it to say $700-$800k.

That kind of thing. Call it "timing" if you want.

Bernard said at November 18th, 2009 at 8:14 pm

This is a very valuable point you raise, especially for investors.

It's important to have an exit strategy before buying an investment property. Let's face it. if you buy a house that backs up to a major highway, you might be able to rent it, but it's likely going to be more difficult to sell it since people don't want to be so close to traffic, noise, and polluted air.

Sometimes, we settle for a house just to 'get a house'. We fail to think "will a family want to buy this house when I'm finished with it in five years"? Selling is completely different from renting!

My recommendation is to ask yourself "would I buy this house for my family"? If the answer is 'no' then put it lower on the list, maybe as a last resort.

Stephen Davis said at November 19th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

Please consider this. You are not talking about investing, you are talking about speculating. Buy low, sell high. I have won on every single-family deal I ever did (over 100) because I invested instead of speculated. I bought the deals because they had positive cash flow. I got the "speculative" appreciation by default. Does that make sense?

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